The Rat Race
The Rat Race (Genau: Geirkhan, "the Warmakers," Rekysp: Okuluzopzkura, from High Rattese meaning "Those Imbued," Rattese: Puroscoro, "the Imbuers of Power") is a species of rat-like non-human aliens from the non-Universal Union Planet Geirkomo (meaning "War-ridden") of the Tenebrous System in the Wawali Galaxy within the 13th Quadrant of the Axle. Members of the Rat Race stand at about 150 centimeters in height, and weight about as much as an average human. Members of the race have arms comparatively longer and more muscular than those of rats, with long black claws on both their hands and feet that never stop growing, as well as long black teeth that similarly never stop growing, and huge tails that they use to hop forward, and as an extra appendage. Due to their large size, members of the rat race have very big hands and feet to support their full weight, and much of the time they pad along on all fours, especially on their homeworld, and in and around rat race communities. Rats or members of the Rat Race tend to become completely hairless with age, with male rats becoming hairless more quickly, and more often. They also tend to become white. The oldest member of the Rat Race to have ever lived was the Emperor of Rat. History: The Emperor of Rat created the Rattese Interstellar Empire through complex political maneuvering, and then biologically augmented himself to live to the ripe old age of 1,500, well after the fall of the empire. He lived out his final three centuries on a spaceship with just a few servants to tend to his needs. It was written down by one of his servants that in his final moments he used his immense psychic ability to guide a small cruiser within the ship down onto Geirkomo. It is believed by many that this was the ship that saved the Rat Race almost 10,000 years later. In the ancient past of Geirkomo, the so-called Rattese Empire had conquered many surrounding systems, even enslaving a nearby alien species known as the Magmatamites. A civil war then erupted, which led to the loss of the Rattese Interstellar Empire, and the scouring of Geirkomo. Two offworld Rattese colonies, Rekyspma, and Oscorsho, managed to survive, but lost much of their spaceflight technology after losing a war with Planet Magmatamus. Planet Geirkomo then became a post-apocalyptic hellscape littered with ruins. For 10,000 years, the Rat Race declined, until the discovery of a spaceship about a century before Huron Space. At the time, shantytowns known as "rat nests" surrounded ancient dumpsites where rats would scavenge for food, resources, and old technologies. The so-called warmakers or Gen/Ghen of the Fruitful Trench, a dumping ground in what was once an ancient undersea trench, found a Firestarter class spaceship designed as a middling Rattese imperial scientist's pleasure barge. Suddenly, all three populations of rats were reunited, and with their three different pieces of a technological puzzle, were able to move much of their population offworld, and onto the two pre-existing colonies, or onto three newly built spaceship colonies (which would later become the colonies on Planet Plague, Planet Tigris, and the Harvester Space Station). The Rat Race's puny empire was revived, but then quickly became a vassal state in the Intergalactic Sugar Cartel known as Hammer & Sickle. Their scoured homeword remains with most of their population who are conscripted into sugar plantations. Ecologically, and environmentally, Geirkomo is doomed, but members of the Rat Race after 10,000 years actually have opportunities to go offworld, and are aware of the wider universe around them. Due to the sheer size of Hammer & Sickle, the cartel literally cannot afford to be ruthless. It needs to inspire a certain amount of loyalty, pride, and have some sort of benefit for its workers. Rats actually receive wages, low as they might be, and frequently rise to positions of power in the cartel. Hammer & Sickle has even twice in the last century been led by a member of the Rat Race, first by Jogorais Hakn, and then by his son Waiskar Hakn. Fruitful Trench's shantytown, the foremost of Geirkomo's so-called "Ten Nests" has become a great capital city in its own right, and in its nicest parts even looks quite beautiful. Though members of the rat race are disparaged as members of a fallen, and enslaved empire of drug peddlers, and beastling mutates, they see themselves as a people on the rise after a long age of tribulation, and suffering. Many young rats have hopes of transforming Hammer & Sickle into a full fledged intergalactic government to rival the Universal Union, or even of joining it. Just one year before Sonn Ekator's Landings on Satara Isle, a member of the Rat Race known as Arattas found himself on Satara Isle after entering a malfunctioning blinkgate. He has since gone semi-feral, and has been given the name Wyldrat by locals, and Chupacabra by the Hassetians. The Rat Race hate the Rangaranionese, and the Rangaranionese hate members of the Rat Race. Category:Aliens Category:Peoples Category:Biology Category:History Category:Huron Space Category:Hammer & Sickle Category:Non-human Aliens